Page 13 of ColdIron
We all had the starved look: cheeks hollowed, bones jutting at elbows and collarbones. I didn’t remember ever having a full stomach. Food was rationed, always insufficient, designed to keep us weak enough to control but strong enough to work.
“If Max says it’s the right map, I trust him,” Rogue said, his hazel eyes bright with hope. He was in love with me, despite the fact that I was apparently a “boy.” But there was no place for romance in a pit. “He’s never been wrong. We all know we’re safest with him.”
He meant my uncanny ability. The overseers always placed me in the deepest, most dangerous shafts, but as long as I was there, they never collapsed. No one knew about my affinity for metal—any metal. I could sense its location through solid rock, manipulate it with my mind, even transform it with my bare hands if I concentrated hard enough.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my friends. But it was safer if they didn’t know the real me while we were all slaves. And I didn’t want them to think of me as a freak, different from them. My parents had drilled that into me from the moment I could first talk. I was different from an average human, and humans were always afraid of the unknown. Fear bred insecurity. Insecurity made people do bad things beyond reason. They’d turn on you, even if they thought they loved you.
“Max always wins,” Kaid said, pumping his fist in the air.
“Of course. That’s why Max is our leader.”Desta’s voice carried doubt, though. She’d always sensed something off about me—probably because we were both girls—but she could never figure out what it was. It helped my case that I was the tallest in the mining camp, much taller than even the tallest men here.
Guilt stabbed at me for deceiving my friends about being a girl. But I’d promised my late parents never to reveal my disguise until I was out of the mines.
If one person outside your family knows your secret, then a dozen people will know it,my mother had said.Your best friends will always tell everything to their best friends.
Secrets don’t keep, my son,my father had added.
“I compared all three maps Missy stole for us from different sources,” I said in my low, raspy voice. “Studied them extensively. They’re nearly identical. I’ve also sorted through all the intel Missy collected from the overseers, guards, and visitors.”
Now and then, the witches from the Pallid Court—the White Witch’s capital in old San Francisco—came to inspect the mining plants and mineral deposits. They were the dangerous kind, but they brought news.
“What if Missy gets caught stealing the maps?” Kaid asked, looking nervously around the small room. There wasn’t much to see, just a small cot I shared with Missy, a bucket in the corner, and the table we huddled around.
“Don’t worry.” Thinking of my brilliant six-and-a-half-year-old sister always made me smile. She was the only one who knew I was her big sister instead of brother. “She returned the other two maps already, unnoticed. You all know she never gets caught.”
The miners weren’t allowed to roam the camp. Notthat we had lives on the surface anyway—not after twelve-to-fourteen hours in the tunnels. We slept above ground, and then we went back down into the deep earth.
Missy traveled the mining districts freely. No one bothered guarding her—she was tiny and always had the sweetest smile ready. But the harsh environment had robbed her of innocence too soon, and my sister knew exactly how to weaponize that smile.
Rogue beamed at me. “She’s the best spy we have.”
She’d also proven useful to the overseers with her quick feet, clever mind, and photographic memory. They often sent her to run errands or pass messages between buildings. Missy had been gathering intel for us for half a year now. When she relayed crucial conversations she’d overheard, she’d mimic every accent perfectly. The girl had a gift.
“Best at everything.” I grinned, love and pride warming my chest.
Missy wasn’t my biological sister, but she was more blood than actual blood. She’d been with me ever since her pa was killed in a mining accident. Her ma had died in labor. The girl had no one else but me, another orphan.
Right now, my brave sister was on lookout, crouched behind a boulder outside my shack. If anyone suspicious approached, she’d make the sound of hissing snakes or bats. Both were common enough in the mines that no one would question it.
“Just so you all know,” Desta said, her voice tight with fear, “if we’re caught, they’ll string us up until thecrows pick our bones clean. Like they did to the other deserters.”
No miners had ever succeeded in escaping. They were always caught before they got far, assuming they hadn’t been shot down by the guards in the watchtowers.
My face hardened. “We talked about this. There’ll be risks, even after we get out. You have to decide for yourselves. This is your last chance to bow out. It’s okay if you don’t come with me. But I’ll always come back for you. My sister is still here.”
“We’re not bailing!” Rogue’s voice burned with loyalty. “We’re with Max through and through. Five years digging that tunnel for this. We’re in this together.”
They’d joined me on the escape tunnel years ago, but I’d been digging alone long before them—since I was eight.
Right after the mine collapsed and buried my parents. I’d gone to the deepest shaft no other miners dared enter. They claimed it was cursed. I’d stayed underground, digging for three straight days until my fingers bled. I never found them.
When I finally emerged, covered in coal and metal dust, the miners called me “mine-gods blessed child.” The one who survived what killed everyone else. Even the overseers believed it.
They sent me down to replace my parents the next day.
In the beginning, I dug the escape tunnel out of grief. To honor my parents’ dream for me to live as a free woman. I almost gave up once. Then Missy came to livewith me, and I started again—for her. My free-spirited sister should never grow up a slave, living like a rat underground. And I couldn’t bear to think what would follow when she became a young woman.
It was killing me to leave her behind. Missy had been crying for weeks, knowing we’d be separated, but she put on a brave face for me during the day.
